What is one to make of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to become hold that position? Politician, wife, mother, grandmother, a woman often personified as a “San Francisco liberal.”
A woman with a killer political smile (or grimace), she was on NBC’s “Today Show” promoting her book, “Know Your Power,” a slim motivational tome that’s suppose to help women achieve their potential.
Dressed in a suave, summery, light green two-piece suit, she cheerfully answered some non-challenging questions from co-host Meredith Vieira in a five-minute segment.
Now, the “Today Show” is a supremely vacuous program; the show’s personalities— Vieira, Matt Lauer, Al Roker, and Ann Curry—are certifiable chatter-heads, clucking away endless about nothing most of the time, listening to the sound of their own voices, and spending a great deal of airtime on personality and culinary flotsam and jettison.
The “Today Show” model is so influential that all the other networks and even cable shows have the same format: chatter-heads sitting around running their mouths. Even Fox has the same format on “Fox and Friends,” and some Spanish stations have also adopted it.
(If one wants a good example of how utterly inane “Today” is, the show invited the Miss South Carolina airhead who couldn’t intelligibly answer a basic question about why Americans are so mis-educated, unable to find their own country on a map! She was invited on the show to "laugh" at herself.)
On “Today,” for almost every day of the last two weeks, there was a segment on the economy and how viewers could: save money budgeting; how to pick coupons from Coupon.com; picking the right city to retire in; looking after one’s finances; how to plan your retirement in these economically straitened times; along with emotionally manipulative stories that always spell "tragedy" (i.e., an injured or dead loved one), etc.
Not missing a beat, however, the show then turned around and did a segment on how the economy is stressing people, but never once admitted that one of the main instruments of stress is the constant television reporting of the economy’s hard times—especially by shows such as “Today,” and when "Today" does its lifestyle features, it’s basically only five-minutes of talkin- points captions.
So, not only is it stressing people, but it’s questionable if its lifestyle/service reporting is giving viewers much of anything of substance to help improve their lot, just tidbits. “Today” is a national show, so factor in that local news shows, as the Washington’s area WRC-Channel 4, are doing the same kind of “news” reporting ad infinitum.
Let’s face it, like everything else in America, this is about entertainment, not keeping people reasonably informed.
True to it’s time-honored format, Meredith Vieira only “substantive” questions were centered on asking Speaker Pelosi if Senator Hlillary Clinton had breached the marble ceiling, or her tampering down expectation that Barack Obama ought to pick Sen. Clinton as his running mate.
Now, it has often been alluded that Pelosi was a closet Obama gal, and some have wondered if that position was due to a philosophical/political kinship with Obama, or the fact that Pelosi was engaging in some classic political cock-blocking.
Had HRC won the nomination and then win the presidency, who would be the most powerful woman in America (and the world)?
A woman with a killer political smile (or grimace), she was on NBC’s “Today Show” promoting her book, “Know Your Power,” a slim motivational tome that’s suppose to help women achieve their potential.
Dressed in a suave, summery, light green two-piece suit, she cheerfully answered some non-challenging questions from co-host Meredith Vieira in a five-minute segment.
Now, the “Today Show” is a supremely vacuous program; the show’s personalities— Vieira, Matt Lauer, Al Roker, and Ann Curry—are certifiable chatter-heads, clucking away endless about nothing most of the time, listening to the sound of their own voices, and spending a great deal of airtime on personality and culinary flotsam and jettison.
The “Today Show” model is so influential that all the other networks and even cable shows have the same format: chatter-heads sitting around running their mouths. Even Fox has the same format on “Fox and Friends,” and some Spanish stations have also adopted it.
(If one wants a good example of how utterly inane “Today” is, the show invited the Miss South Carolina airhead who couldn’t intelligibly answer a basic question about why Americans are so mis-educated, unable to find their own country on a map! She was invited on the show to "laugh" at herself.)
On “Today,” for almost every day of the last two weeks, there was a segment on the economy and how viewers could: save money budgeting; how to pick coupons from Coupon.com; picking the right city to retire in; looking after one’s finances; how to plan your retirement in these economically straitened times; along with emotionally manipulative stories that always spell "tragedy" (i.e., an injured or dead loved one), etc.
Not missing a beat, however, the show then turned around and did a segment on how the economy is stressing people, but never once admitted that one of the main instruments of stress is the constant television reporting of the economy’s hard times—especially by shows such as “Today,” and when "Today" does its lifestyle features, it’s basically only five-minutes of talkin- points captions.
So, not only is it stressing people, but it’s questionable if its lifestyle/service reporting is giving viewers much of anything of substance to help improve their lot, just tidbits. “Today” is a national show, so factor in that local news shows, as the Washington’s area WRC-Channel 4, are doing the same kind of “news” reporting ad infinitum.
Let’s face it, like everything else in America, this is about entertainment, not keeping people reasonably informed.
True to it’s time-honored format, Meredith Vieira only “substantive” questions were centered on asking Speaker Pelosi if Senator Hlillary Clinton had breached the marble ceiling, or her tampering down expectation that Barack Obama ought to pick Sen. Clinton as his running mate.
Now, it has often been alluded that Pelosi was a closet Obama gal, and some have wondered if that position was due to a philosophical/political kinship with Obama, or the fact that Pelosi was engaging in some classic political cock-blocking.
Had HRC won the nomination and then win the presidency, who would be the most powerful woman in America (and the world)?
Even if Obama loses, and he has a 50-50 chance of doing that as well as winning, Speaker Pelosi would still be the most politically powerful woman in the United States among powerful men.
Back to my original question: What is one to make of Pelosi, and the House Democrats?
Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats took over the House of Representatives in 2006, and have almost squandered every opportunity to show leadership. Skillful at winning elections, they have shown themselves to be bad at governance, handing lame-duck president George W. Bush unprecedented victories. They have shown themselves to be a party of capitulation unable to scale down the war and end it, or challenge the ever-increasing and unlawful expansion of presidential power that serially violates the Constitution.
Instead of aimless girl chat about empowering women (not that there’s anything fundamentally wrong with that), Ms.Vieira could have asked some real questions of the Speaker, such as:
1. Why haven’t you and your Democrat colleagues use the power of the purse, i.e., the means to fund, to shut of money for the war in Iraq?
Back to my original question: What is one to make of Pelosi, and the House Democrats?
Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats took over the House of Representatives in 2006, and have almost squandered every opportunity to show leadership. Skillful at winning elections, they have shown themselves to be bad at governance, handing lame-duck president George W. Bush unprecedented victories. They have shown themselves to be a party of capitulation unable to scale down the war and end it, or challenge the ever-increasing and unlawful expansion of presidential power that serially violates the Constitution.
Instead of aimless girl chat about empowering women (not that there’s anything fundamentally wrong with that), Ms.Vieira could have asked some real questions of the Speaker, such as:
1. Why haven’t you and your Democrat colleagues use the power of the purse, i.e., the means to fund, to shut of money for the war in Iraq?
2. Why have you only recently allowed the House Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on the expansion of presidential power, which could lead to impeachment, rather than initiate them in early 2007?
3. Could you explain the news stories that you and other Democratic leaders had earlier knowledge of the torture and "enemy combtant" imprisonment policies of the Bush administration? Are House Democrats afraid of being called soft on terrorism?
4. Why have House Democrats become complicit with the egregious updating of FISA, giving immunity to telecommunication firms who broke the law? Once again, are House Democrats afraid of being called soft on terrorism?
So, what has Nancy Pelosi done with her new-found power? Given how craven the Democratic Party has behaved recently, will winning the White House, gaining more seats in both chambers, actually give them impetus to really change the direction of the country? Or, will the American people just be given more hype than actual hope regarding the possibility of actually doing something substantive?
Inquiring minds want to know.
No comments:
Post a Comment